The landscape maintenance field involves a wide range of lawn and garden tools used to maintain flora and man-made surfaces. For example, powered hand-held snow throwers such as the Power Shovel, manufactured by the Toro Company of Bloomington, Minn., USA, are commonly used to remove snow from walkways and driveways. Additionally, powered debris blowers allow debris clearance using a fast-moving stream of air. Other common lawn and garden tools include the pole saw and hedge trimmer, both of which may be used to trim or modify the natural growth of trees and landscape plants. Perhaps among the most common lawn and garden tools is the string trimmer. String trimmers are typically used to cut grass in areas where it is otherwise prohibitive to use a mower (e.g. where the mower is unable to effectively reach the grass intended to be cut).
While most lawn and garden tools are well-suited to a variety of different users, some may find certain tools are less comfortable to use than others. For example, a smaller user may find that a string trimmer that utilizes a shorter boom is easier and/or more comfortable to operate than a similar trimmer with a longer boom. Yet further, a trimmer having a shorter boom may also allow for more compact storage.